


A Distraction

by Redribbonhood



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Kissing, Meditation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 11:42:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redribbonhood/pseuds/Redribbonhood
Summary: After the events of Broken Circle, Sten practices regaining his focus. The Warden is not helping.





	A Distraction

## 17.  A kiss “…to distract.”

  Sten does not flinch as the drunken dwarf strikes him. Again. The blow is heavy, expected given the weight of the over-sized axe’s pommel. The giant does not even stagger. There would be a bruise, a consequence the sten has anticipated and accepted. What he did not anticipate was for the Warden to interfere.

  She is not much taller than the dwarf. Elves were lithe, tiny creatures. Sten is sure he could crush the mage in his hands if ever ordered to. But for now, she is the one giving the orders. The dwarf seems too inebriated to comprehend her scolding and she sends him off to his tent.

 Sten looks to the sky. The moon is high and everyone else traveling with them has gone to sleep. The dwarf, Oghren, and he had been on their shift guarding the camp. The Warden should not have been awake, he reasons, it is not her turn for watch.

 “Sten, what was that?” Surana asks him, clearly tired and very exasperated. She has her tiny elf hands on her hips. If she is trying to being threatening, Sten thinks, she is not succeeding. “Oghren said something about you asking him to hit you? Please tell me that’s not true,”

“It is, Kadan,”

She stares at him. He stares back.

Finally:  _“Why?”_  she asks emphatically.

He regards her. She looks even smaller out of the Grey Warden mage armor. She is wearing only an over-sized sleeping shirt that goes nearly to her knees. Maybe shorts underneath. Impractical, he thinks gravely, given the brisk late-autumn temperatures. He knows little of elf physiology but he doubts their bodies are any more resistant to cold than a qunari's.

 “Suffering is a choice, and we can refuse it.” he answers finally. The Warden is always asking questions and oftentimes his answers do not satisfy her. Still, he does not mind them.

  “But you didn’t refuse it,” Surana frowns, brows furrowing in confusion. Sten can see her thinking it over. She is not like the sword-and-shield human, Alistair, the one who speaks without thinking. He approves of this about her. “You told him to hit you..as a punishment? Is this another qunari thing?”

“Yes. A training exercise. To master fear, to regain control of self,” his answer is longer than usual because he hopes she will not ask him to explain it further. He cannot expect her to understand.

 “This is about what happened in the Fade, isn’t it?” She stares at him with concern. He takes a seat on the ground and reaches for Asala inside his tent behind him. He begins to polish his blade, not giving an answer because the question had been a statement. Surana sits down beside him, not seeming to mind the grass on her bare legs. It is dark this far away from the camp’s fire, but he can still see her large eyes staring at him.

“It’s okay to have wanted to spend time with your old comrades, Sten,”

He continues polishing.

“You did better than anyone else. At least you knew it was an illusion. The sloth demon even fooled Wynne..” The platitudes are insubstantial and she seems to recognize it as she trails off and is quiet again, thinking. “Are there other training exercises you could do?”

“Yes.”

“Can I help?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You would make better use of your time sleeping,”

“Is that an invitation, Sten?” she jokes, gesturing to his tent just behind them. He frowns at her.

“You have your own tent. Why would you want to sleep in mine?”

 “Never mind.” She laughs softly and shakes her head. “I just…the archemon dreams are keeping me up again. So, while I’m awake anyways, why not let me help?”

 “Fine.” He relents because he knows she will not. The Warden was always trying to help. Every bas in every village they met seemed to have mundane tasks for her and yet his leader always accepted them. It frustrates Sten but he’s learned by now that there was no point protesting it. He places Asala tenderly back into his tent and then readjusts his position so he is in meditation pose.

 “This is a meditation exercise. For focus. I will recite the Cantos of the Qun in my mind. As I do so I will stare straight ahead and make no movements or change in expression,”

“Isn’t that what you usually do?” she asks, feigning innocence. He is not amused.

 “You may attempt to distract me, Kadan. Run at me, hit me, fire one of your spells… attempt one of your droll jokes. I will not react.”

“Are you sassing me or is that _your_ attempt at a joke?”

“Yes.”

  “Alright, let’s do this,” she stands up, barely taller than him even when he’s sitting. She moves a  few paces back. Her blade, Spellweaver, is in her tent but she doesn’t need it for this. She tries Crushing Prison first, a much diluted version as to not cause him serious harm. If it does anything she cannot tell. After four seconds she dispells it. New tactic.

 Surana takes a few steps backwards and cups her hands together, moving them apart slowly and drawing heat from the fade. She tosses a small fireball at him and it ignites the ground behind him. Sten does not even blink, nor make any attempt to move. She growls (again, he thinks, failing to be intimidating) and runs at him, barely moving to the side in time to avoid crashing into him. He does not blink. She stomps out the enkindled grass behind him then punches his shoulder.

  “Ow,” she winces and shakes out her hand. If he had not been in the middle of this meditation he would have remarked on how elves, especially female elves, should not be warriors- certainly not with their tiny, ineffectual fists. She sighs, as if reading his mind and moves in front of him, crouching down to look up at him again.

   “I give up. I’m going to bed,” she tells him, frowning seriously. He does not react. She tilts her head up and kisses him.

  Sten’s eyes widen imperceptibly and his body tenses but otherwise he does not react. The kiss is short and unsure, and he finds himself wondering if she’s ever done this before. He pushes the thought from his mind. The act was not foreign to him. It was an affectionate gesture, uncommon amongst the qunari, but not unheard of. An…unexpected attempt at distraction.

   The Warden studies his steady eyes and unchanged face with a strange look on her face. Sten is surprised that he cannot read her intent. Usually the mage was transparent in her thoughts but when her small  hands reach up to hold his face, he is genuinely caught off guard. She kisses him again. Her lips are soft against his rough ones; she seems more sure of herself now, kissing him gently again and again. Sten feels his fists on his knees unclenching slowly but he refrains from moving them further, unsure of what they had been intending to do.

  It is only a couple of moments before he can no longer concentrate. He is light headed and alarmed- memories and feelings long buried are resurfacing- fragments of a life long forgotten. The self from before he had allowed the re-educators to fix him. Her hands move up to his hair, lithe fingers gliding over his braids, his scalp…Sten feels his mind coming undone.

“ _Parshaara_ , Kadan,” he growls, his large hands grabbing her firmly by the waist and moving her away. Inexplicably he is out of breath, and his heart is beating faster than normal. “Enough,”

Surana searches his face for signs of anger and hostility- and find only frustration. But it does not seem directed towards her. For once he won’t meet her gaze.

“Sten?”

“You are a formidable opponent. And an unpredictable one,” he says, still unable to make eye contact. A true warrior knew when to retreat. He releases her and moves to enter his tent. With his back to her he pauses before entering. “Thank you for your help, Kadan. It is…useful, to know I can still be distracted,”

He closes the tent flap behind him but hears no noise indicating the Warden’s departure. A few more moments go by before he hears her.

“Will you be meditating again tomorrow night?”

“Yes,” he replies, seeing no reason to lie. He would meditate until all distractions were gone from his mind. The Qun demanded it. There is another long pause before the Warden asks her next question.

“May I help you again?”

It takes Sten a long time of contemplation before he is able to answer. She waits.

Finally: “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Unnamed Female Surana (not my OC). Part of a "50 Kisses" Writing Prompt request from my writing [tumblr](https://grey-wardens-dont-have-dental.tumblr.com)


End file.
